ISP Blog Post #5

Bog Post #5 – Post-Colonial Literary Criticism

I am going to apply the post-colonial literary criticism to my novel, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. There are two examples of a dominant culture oppressing another in this novel. The first one is American white men, the “toubab” forcing African people to come to America and work as slaves. The second example is America’s colonization by Britain and their fight to be free from British rule.

This novel explicitly represents colonial oppression of African’s by white American’s. African’s were stripped of all personal freedoms and rights. Aminata was forcibly removed from her home village, family and culture. She lost her right to practice her Muslim faith because she was not allowed to pray. She was not permitted to marry the man that she loved (Chekura) and her baby was treated like property by her ‘toubab owner’. Back in Africa, family was the main source of Aminata’s identity but she did not have the right to have a family as an African slave.

A couple examples in the novel of post-colonial cultural identity are the maps of Africa that Aminata found in the library and the description of different African’s by the slave trade overseer, Mr. King. The map of Africa drawn by white American’s had pictures of a monkey on it and a child lying with a lion. Aminata didn’t even know what a monkey was and said an African child would be foolish to lie down with a lion. “This ‘Mapp of Africa’ was not my homeland. It was a white man’s fantasy.” (Hill 216) Aminata also took offence to Mr. King’s description of a ‘lazy’ type of African who she knew to be a very hard-working tribe. These misrepresentations of her culture made her feel even more oppressed. This reminded her once again that her white owners really didn’t care about who she really was or where she came from.

The second example of post-colonialism in this novel is the oppression of American’s by the British. The United States at that time (1700’s) was a colony of Britain. The colonies had a lot of freedoms from Britain but they wanted more freedom. Aminata eventually moved to New York and it is here that she first hears of the American’s dislike of the British. “It’s war now and we shall have freedom.” “Freedom? For the slaves?” “Niggers, nothing. I’m talking about us. Rebels. Patriots. We shall be free of the British and their taxes. Never again shall we be slaves” (Hill, 254). This was an American speaking to Aminata about freedom. As Aminata spoke with this young man, she thought it was ludicrous that the white people who were her ‘owners’ could consider themselves ‘slaves’ of the British. The anti-colonialist resistance of the Americans eventually lead to war with the British.

The way the Americans were treated by the British doesn’t really compare to the way the African’s were treated by the Americans. Africans were stripped of their basic identity and culture, while the American’s were free to develop their own identity and culture.